* Quoting from your post re Rockwell v.90 *
CF>NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Feb. 9, 1998 -- Rockwell Semiconductor Systems
  >announced today at its analyst meeting here that the company is shipping
  >client-side and central-site modem chipsets incorporating  new V.90
  >specifications that the ITU finalized last week.
CF>Rockwell's chipsets include both the ITU's new V.90 specifications and
  >its popular K56flex technology to give consumers the broadest possible
  >flexibility during the industry's transition to the new 56Kbps modem
  >standard.  This ensures continued and reliable 56Kbps connectivity for
  >both client-side modems and central-site equipment as Internet Service
  >Providers (ISPs) begin deploying service for the new V.90 standard.
---snipped---
While the new Rockwell V.90 chipsets no doubt do include both V.90 and
56kFlex there would seemingly be more than some doubt as to the ability
of current client-side 56kFlex modems to be upgraded to a similar state.
Not quite sure if this also applies to current central-site equipment.
Quoting an extract from Les Jones' URL .. www.56k.com .. as follows:-
" Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 21:31:51 GMT
February 18, 1998
Shane Lord of "http://www.netcomm.com.au/press_releases/1998/V90.htm"
Sirius Technologies - the modem maker that now encompasses NetComm,
Banksia, Dataplex, Simple Computing and Avtek - wrote to say that Sirius
has announced support for V.90. Upgrades are expected in March or April.
>Shane also provides an explanation for something I noted on Friday:
Just a bit of info you may or may not know... You mentioned in your news
that two other companies have announced that their modems will support
V.90 in March, but that they can only use one or the other (V.90 or
K56flex). The reason for this is because the original reference design
(and the single chip RCxxx56ACF/xx chipset) supplied by Rockwell to
modem manufacturers for K56flex, incorporated 1 meg flash EEPROMs, as
the chipset used was limited by the memory it could access.
K56flex, being the highly complex code that it is, takes almost all of
the 1 meg flash EEPROM, and therefore there is no further room for
extended code expansion (such as V.90 implementation). The need for two
firmware revisions loaded at once was not foreseen in the iniital
implementation of 56k. This is why units based on this design can only have
K56flex or V.90 loaded in firmware at any one time, not both. To support
both in firmware, Rockwell have released a new reference design, and a 2
chip solution, that can reference a larger set of memory. All future
designed products from the Sirius Technologies group of companies
(NetComm/ Banksia/ Simple/ Avtek) will incorporate this.
"http://www.xircom.com/Happenings/Press/980211.html"
Xircom announced plans for free V.90 upgrades in March. Like Hayes,
Multi-Tech and Xircom modems will have ability to support V.90 and
K56flex, but apparently not both at the same time. They can use one or
the other, and re-installation (which probably means a firmware change)
will be required to switch between them. The three vendors all call this
feature by slightly different names - including "dual modem capacity,"
"dual capability, "and "dual mode capacity, " respectively - but it's
clear they're reading from the same page. "
------
If this is indeed the case owners of current 56kFlex modems will be
faced with the tedium of switching firmware between V.90 and Flex
depending on their ISP's set-up .. if of course they wish to indulge in
the pain of V.90 public beta trials! :-)
---
 þ SPEED 1.30 [NR] þ
---------------